Bishop Mary's Christmas Message 2023
Transcript
At Christmas we hear a message of hope which calls us not to be afraid. St John tells us that Jesus is, “The light that shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it”. He is the living sign of God’s healing, reconciliation and comfort.
We live in anxious times, and it’s easy for fear, rather than love and hope, to drive our thoughts and actions. Anxiety can easily take hold of our hearts because we’re aware of so much suffering in the world. Many close to home struggle to keep warm and fed with the increased costs of food and fuel. Further afield, including in the very place we remember as the place of Christ’s birth, we witness the chaos and trauma of war and violence. We’re keenly aware also, of the devastating consequences of the climate emergency. We can feel frightened and overwhelmed by all of this, worried that things can’t be fixed that we’re just too broken.
We need a framework of hope that can liberate us from fear. The Christmas story helps us to discover this; we hear this telling of the calling of those involved in Christ’s birth: The angel Gabriel speaks to Mary saying, “Do not be afraid” when she’s called to be the mother of the Christ-child. Joseph also hears a call to trust as he finds his place in God’s story. The shepherds and the Magi find signs of something unexpected, which they notice in the natural world and through the people around them and they dare to venture to new places, to be open to risk a journey to discover God’s purpose.
Fear tempts us to define ourselves narrowly within all that we think we know; in the confines of what we’re against, who we think’s wrong, and those we don’t like. Love, by contrast offers an invitation to make a journey away from fear to discover a hope that offers a fresh way to live.
A Christmas prayer from Corrymeela explores this:
God of silent nights, your light shines in the darkness
so that even our darkness becomes a place to find hope.
Still our hearts and minds, so that in this moment we might hear the cry
of new life born to us in a place of glorious humility;
with the strength of human and divine vulnerability. Amen.